American teenager defeat 12th seeded Cibulkova
NEW YORK: Despite boasting 34 grand slam singles titles between them, Serena Williams and Roger Federer were forced to share the spotlight with a 15-year-old at the US Open as all three advanced to the second round.
American wild card Catherine Bellis, the youngest player in the draw, took her place alongside the five-times US champions by stunning 12th seeded Australian Open finalist Dominica Cibulkova of Slovakia 6-1 4-6 6-4.
The second-seeded Federer, looking to extend his record men’s haul of slam titles to 18, posted a 6-3 6-4 7-6 (4) demolition of Australian Marinko Matosevic as the 33-year-old’s boyhood idol Michael Jordan of basketball fame looked on.
‘He was just my hero of all sports,’ said Federer, who has collaborated with Jordan on a sneakers design. ‘Besides (Stefan) Edberg and (Boris) Becker being my tennis idols, I had Jordan as my all-sports idol.’
Williams advanced 6-3 6-1 over unseeded fellow American Taylor Townsend as she followed Federer onto the Arthur Ashe Stadium court to cap the second day of the championships.
Should she go on to win the tournament, the two-times defending champion would join Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova in fourth place on the all-time list of women’s grand slam singles champions with 18 titles apiece.
‘Hopefully, I can just build on this,’ said Williams, who has had a disappointing slam season with her best result a fourth-round exit at the Australian Open back in January.
Margaret Court (24), Steffi Graf (22) and Helen Wills Moody (19) are the only three women to have won more grand slam titles.
Other leading contenders were keen to display their skills on a sunny day in Flushing Meadows.
Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova and runner-up Eugenie Bouchard launched their Open campaigns with a bang, blasting by their respective first-round opponents with a minimum of fuss.
They were joined in the second round by eighth-seeded former world number one Ana Ivanovic, 11th-seeded Italian Flavia Pennetta, 16th seed Victoria Azarenka and 2011 champion Sam Stosur, but the biggest jolt of energy was supplied by Bellis.
Playing on the secondary Court Six, the teenager added her name to the record books by becoming the youngest female to win a match at the US Open since Anna Kournikova in 1996.
Third-seeded Kvitova of the Czech Republic crushed Kristina Mladenovic of France 6-1 6-0, while Bouchard was nearly as efficient in dismissing Olga Govortsova 6-2 6-1.(PTI)